Webcomic / Sore Thumbs

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Sore Thumbs by Owen Gieni and Chris Crosby is a combination political satire and gamer webcomic. The premise is based on poking equal fun at political extremes by strawmanning them in the form of the main characters.

The storyline follows Cecania, a Democrat who wants to make drive-through abortions available, her brother Fairbanks, a Republican who refuses to read the Bible lest he find something in it to question, her best friend Harmony, a ditzy and self-centered brain surgeon, and Sawyer, an ex-soldier who lost his manhood in Iraq and owns a pet talking miniature polar bear as they work in the eponymous video game store, Sore Thumbs.

The comic ran into some Schedule Slip issues in 2013, and the updates got less frequent until they stopped entirely in May 2014. The most recent word from the authors (May 2016) is that they intend to bring the comic back as soon as they have time.

Provides examples of:

Abandoned Info Page: The characters page was never once updated. The creators joked that updating it after all that time would feel like cheating, and finally deleted it in 2009.

Art Shift: Start at the beginning, then jump to the latest. Shocking difference. It started off as an Animesque webcomic, and then got shifted to an American style.

And in 2009 the comic seems to have made a reboot, and the grayscale comic is changed to full color.

Animated Actors: Several filler strips are interviews with the character's actors.

Butt-Monkey: Jeff (free with chili dog). Can be considered a Deconstruction, since his degradation (and how spinelessly he submits to it) eventually starts coming across as more creepy than pitiable, with hints that he's as void of morals as he is of courage and self-respect. Future Cecania apparently instructed her daughter to never be alone with Jeff.

Call-Back: When Steve Irwin was killed by a stingray, Fairbanks went into a Tranquil Fury and stalked across the country until he found the stingray and murdered it with a speargun. When Charlton Heston died, Fairbanks went into a tranquil fury and stalked across the country until he found a random chimpanzee and murdered it with a speargun.

Character Development: Cecania went from a whiny, put-upon Purity Sue to a liberal whackjob. Fairbanks went from a conservative whackjob to being a conservative ditz of epic proportions.

Deliberately Monochrome: there's a story arc where Cecania gets shipped off to Guantanamo Bay for wearing a skimpy outfit on national television. In the otherwise black and white world, Cecania's hair is pink. The guard states: "I find I enjoy the color of your hair. I was unaware that more than two colors existed." The comic has evolved to full color.

I Have Boobs, You Must Obey!: Cecania was banned from wearing two-piece bathing suits because her half-naked form is considered a weapon of mass destruction.

She tried to use this on Sawyer extremely early on, but there were... problems.

Intercontinuity Crossover: Cecania is friends with DiDi from Ménage à 3. Furthermore, Stasia from Marry Me is famous in the world of Sore Thumbs And Parker from the same comic has stopped by, bringing the conclusion that this is the same world. Finally, when Fairbanks is adopted by a black family, his black brother's best friend is Wiley Schlub from Wicked Powered. Notably, both of those comics are written by the Crosby brothers of Keenspot.

Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions: Conservative Christians are depicted as idiots. Also lampshaded, the only reason Fairbanks has such screwy ideas about God is that he never, ever read the Bible, for fear he might start questioning it. Insane Troll Logic at its finest.

Out of Focus: As of the reboot, everyone but Cecania, Fairbanks, and Jimmy.

Strawman Political: Both American parties are mocked, with Cecania representing Democrats and Fairbanks the Republicans. Early on the strip was pretty much a venue to bash Republicans and conservatives. It's gotten more even-handed and less preachy (for the most part) since then.

Crosby claimed from the start that he wanted Sore Thumbs to become an even-handed political satire.

Take Our Word for It: Sawyer, an otherwise incredibly hot guy, apparently had his penis lost in Iraq. This is never actually shown to us, and if it weren't for the fact that he brings it up now and then, you'd easily forget.

Team Pet: Coleman, a miniature polar bear.It has been revealed he was just a baby ALIEN bear

The Unfavorite: Cecania. The strip started out with Mother ordering her to work at Fairbanks' videogame shoppe as slave labor for her keep, instead of giving her $80,000 to do whatever she wanted with like she did to Fairbanks.

Mother: I'm not very fond of you. Your very existence is a minor tragedy, really.

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